Strong client relationships are crucial to most businesses and the risks from losing clients to former employees when they leave can be fairly substantial.

Many companies fall into the trap of paranoia when it comes to making sure employees don’t poach clients and this can make for a tense atmosphere and an often slightly unhappy workplace.

Monitoring of emails to look for hidden messages, keeping strict tabs on interactions between staff and clients, and heavy handed disciplinary measures are often employed when trying to protect a carefully built up client roster, however, this is not always the most foresighted way to go about it.

For most businesses, the best way to approach an issue like client poaching is to take the attitude of prevention is better than cure. What this translates as is essentially keeping a subtle eye on what’s going on in the business and ensuring relationships with employees are properly and delicately handled.

Cultivating staff loyalty, and encouraging those employees who are staying in the business to retain any vulnerable clients with bonuses and other incentives, will provide an effective buffer to the threat of individual staff taking clients with them, either before or after they leave.

It’s also important to ensure that employment contracts include restrictive covenants on client poaching. Highlighting these provisions to staff, either when they join the business, or periodically throughout their role, will gently remind those involved that the company doesn’t tolerate client poaching and will take action to prevent anyone who attempts to do this.

It’s also a good idea to set up review procedures within various teams to keep an eye on how close employees are getting to valuable clients and whether there are any threats on the horizon.

While employees need to be aware that the business does periodically carry out reviews in order to protect its client relationships, a heavy handed approach should be avoided as it can motivate employees to become resentful and may encourage devious tactics when it comes to leaving and taking clients along.

This is particularly the case with respect to more senior members of staff who may have much closer client contacts and may feel like any monitoring was an insult to their professional attitude and company loyalty.

Unfortunately, sometimes there are situations in which these pre-emptive actions are simply not enough and it may come to light that staff members, or former staff members, have still gone ahead – or are about to attempt - to poach clients from the business.

In that situation, the most effective and efficient approach is undoubtedly a High Court injunction, which will ensure that any employee or director is stopped from approaching clients by enforcing the restrictive covenants in that employee’s contract of employment.

Where there has been loss then there may be a claim against that employee for that loss, as well as for any damages that may also be due.

Stephensons has an expert commercial litigation team with an enormous amount of injunctions experience. We can help you act swiftly to protect your core business clients and ensure that rogue employees don’t affect your company’s future.